I woke up at 0545 am, picked up my spectacles from the side-board and went to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth, I had my palms full of water to splash it on my face when the call bell rang. What the hell – so early in the morning. Who could it be? The paper or the milk-man? I quickly splashed water on my face and couldn’t find the hand towel.
I was then half awake-half asleep, slightly irritated, I had splashed water on my face, with my spectacles on, and couldn’t see anything – but had to attend the door bell, asap.
I walked quickly, opened the door and all I could see was a silhoutte. Something wrong with my vision or was it the water on my spectacle lenses? Finally, I could make out that he was the milkman. Took a utensil to the door and he poured the milk. I went back in again and was about to keep the utencil on the burner the bell rang again. Because of the blurred vision and distraction from the call bell, I inadvertently kept it on the edge of the burner, the utencil skidded and almost half of the milk spilled on the shelf. What a mess – all because of the blooming hand towel. Where was it?
I removed the spectacles and went to the front door. There was no one and I found the newspaper on the verandah floor. When I picked it up, it was all blurred, couldn’t read a word without the spectacles.
I dare not wake up ‘M’ before she herself wakes up as I had enough mess on the kitchen shelf. She wouldn’t have been of much help either, except she would have blasted me -“Can you ever do anything properly”? Sometimes she leaves me with no option but to retaliate “Hey listen, both are software engineers”.
I tip-toed towards the bathroom, through my son’s bedroom, to wash my face and wipe my glasses with a tissue. There was lot of clutter lying on the floor. When these kids are small, they are very nice and obedient. When they are professional post-grads, they are worse than kids. In his spare time he plays with remote controlled toys – helicopters, cars, planes and all the tools required in assembling them, are always scattered on the floor. When will he ‘sudhro’? Can’t even bash him up, as he dodges me better than Bruce Lee.
Once in the bathroom, I cleaned my glasses with the tissue and then I found that the blooming hand towel had all along been on my shoulder.
A cool head is important as Giani Zail Singhji, Ex President of India, had so very rightly said that “gussa aatta hai, to dimag chala jata hai – gussa chala jata hai to dimag aa jata hai”. (When anger comes, the brain goes away and when anger goes – the brain comes back).
Keep your cool and have a nice day.
Ravi Matah